Weekend of free fun gives taste of Olympics fun

Hundreds of free events taking place in London this weekend - from free-running to big screen films - are set to give a flavour of the celebrations to come in the capital during Olympic year.

Open Weekend, marking the one-year countdown to the 2012 Games, involves 1,200 activities, cultural and sporting, taking place across the country.

In London, they include drop-in sessions at venues from the Barbican to Tate Britain, an entire weekend of activities at the National Sports Centre in Crystal Palace, free-running training camps in Westminster, and a treasure hunt that culminates in a party in the East End.

Trafalgar Square will host a big-screen presentation of Tate Movie's The Itch of the Golden Nit, made by children and Aardman Animations. It set a Guinness World Record for the most contributors to an animated film.

More film is being screened in The Floating Cinema, a converted barge now traversing the waterways of the five Olympic boroughs. And the National Portrait Gallery is running taster sessions teaching portraiture to 14- to 19-year-olds.

However, plans for a dramatic launch today with Londoners waking up to music coming from the skies were postponed because it was too windy.It is hoped the Sky Orchestra, seven balloons each broadcasting part of a composition, will be able to take off in coming days.

Ruth Mackenzie, director of the Cultural Olympiad, which has co-ordinated the arts programme for the Games, said this weekend was a curtain-raiser for next year's London 2012 Festival.

"The London 2012 Festival will bring the biggest artists from around the world to the UK for a 12-week, UK-wide festival to celebrate the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad," she said.

Inspirational youngster Danielle Bailey, 13, who is aiming for the London 2012 Paralympics after becoming a champion swimmer despite losing her limbs to meningitis, is at such a standard that she will face world champion and current British record holder Fran Williamson when she competes in the 50m backstroke at the British Youth National swimming Championships in Sheffield next week.

Coach Chris said: "It shows how far she has come to be able to compete against a Paralympian medallist in Fran."